Adventures In Art: Challenge 7 - It's Oh So Quiet.........

Thank you all so much for joining in with last week's 'Seeing Double' Challenge! We had some fantastically inventive entries. If you haven't seen the exhibition already, you can check it out here:

https://artatmg.blogspot.com/2020/05/seeing-double-exhibition.html

It's incredible to think that this is our 7th week of the MG Virtual Art Club, so to celebrate here is Challenge Number 7:

It's Oh So Quiet

Things are certainly quieter these days - no planes, less cars, fewer people about. So in these quieter times, we thought we'd do some quiet, gentle art......Still Life

Remember to read right to the end of this post as there are some different things to try according to your age and the type of art you like to do.

Still Life is simply the drawing of objects you find in everyday life. It is different to other drawings because it can't move - it is still (unlike a person in portrait) and is close up to you (unlike a landscape)

Many artists practise their drawing by doing still life pictures. Paul Cezanne is a good one to check out.....he was certainly keen on his apples!!

So in his honour we are going to start with the humble apple!

Here is a simple way for our younger clubbers to practise drawing an apple, as they are not perfectly round.

The alphabet apple!

Draw a c.

Then a naughty (facing the wrong way) c!

Add two l's at the top.

Then an o on top of that.

Add some leaves and try some shading.

Every time you draw it, it will be slightly different, just like apples are!

Shading practice.

If you use the flat edge of your pencil, you get a lighter, softer effect. If you use the tip of it you will get a darker, harder one.

Have a practice with these different shading techniques in pencil and in colour - blend your colours so your apple is not simply all red or all green.

Next we're going to look at a bowl of fruit.

You can see right through our bowls. This shows the fruit resting on top of other fruit.

But we're going to draw a basket with some fruit in that you can't see through.

Start by drawing a great big smile!

Pop a thin, long sausage shape on top.

Lightly draw in the fruit, you can't usually see through the bowl

Then start adding the fruit you can see on top.

Whatever fruit you want, but make sure it is quite large, don't go too small with it.

Rub out the fruit you shouldn't see and add a pattern to your basket, before colouring and shading it in.

FINALLY add your HORIZON LINE - this will immediately make your bowl look as if it is sitting on a table.

Adding a horizon line gives a sense of depth to your picture.

For older Art Clubbers practise your drawing and shading on a harder arrangement of objects.

For the ultimate challenge try the style of the master of cross-hatching....Morandi!

Now after all this practice, you need to set up your own Still Life scene.

Here are some that Rose has done:

You might want to make your still life 'Oh So Quiet' like Cezanne or Rose using delicate pencil strokes and gentle blending of colours like these.......

Here is a giant Still Life Year 3 did a few years ago for the leadership room on South Site - you could draw or do something similar - draw individual objects, then arrange them, some in front, some behind....not forgetting your horizon line!

https://artatmg.blogspot.com/2017/02/large-still-life-with-apples.html

Here's some more examples of still life collages: